FELDA SAHABAT, Malaysia (Reuters) – Malaysian security forces found 13 bodies of suspected Philippine militants as they expanded their hunt for an elusive armed group on the island of Borneo on Wednesday, a day after an assault with fighter jets, mortars and hundreds of troops.

The nearly month-long confrontation in Sabah state, in Malaysia’s part of Borneo, was sparked when the armed group of about 200 sailed from the nearby southern Philippines to press an ancient claim to the resource-rich region.

“The total is 13. There could be more,” Malaysian Defence Minister Zahid Hamidi told reporters at a media center set up at the palm oil plantation of Felda Sahabat.

It was unclear if the bodies found on Wednesday had been killed in Tuesday’s massive assault or included some of the 19 militants that Malaysian officials said had been killed over the weekend. At least 27 people, including eight Malaysian policemen, have been killed since Friday’s first clash.

Zahid, who produced what he described as pictures of some of the dead militants, said Malaysian forces had suffered no fresh casualties since the assault was launched on Tuesday.

Malaysian police warned residents to be on alert for members of the group who had escaped into plantations that dominate the coastal area and who could be posing as farmers.

Security forces clashed with suspected militants in three separate locations on Wednesday, state news agency Bernama said, with one gunman shot and believed to be dead.

“The mopping and searching will cover a wider area given there are signs the intruders moved to another location,” police inspector-general Ismail Omar told reporters.

“The security forces are tracking down their movements and will take the appropriate action.”

FIGHTERS WILL NOT RETURN HOME: SPOKESMAN

Allies of the group in Manila said they had been in telephone contact with Raja Muda Agbimuddin Kiram, the militants’ leader and the brother of the self-proclaimed sultan, who said the group had split up to avoid detection.

Abraham Idjirani, a spokesman for the group, told Reuters that 10 of the sultan’s followers had died in total, with 10 captured and four wounded.

“They will not come home and would rather die fighting if cornered,” he said of the remaining followers in Sabah.

The family in Manila also said more followers had arrived to reinforce the group, a journey between the Southeast Asian neighbors that takes around an hour by speedboat.

Army trucks carrying dozens of soldiers continued to enter the village of Kampung Tanduo where the group had originally been holed up. A helicopter hovered overhead.

Fighter jets bombed the group’s camp in the Felda Sahabat plantation early on Tuesday after Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak said his patience had run out. Philippine officials had urged the group to return home.

The group says it represents the now defunct sultanate of Sulu in the southern Philippines and demands recognition and payment from Malaysia due to their claim to be rightful owners of Sabah.

The security headache has strained ties between the Philippines and Malaysia and could prompt Najib to delay an election that must be held by June, adding to nervousness among investors over what could be the country’s closest ever polls.

The insecurity has disrupted operations in Sabah’s huge palm oil industry. Prolonged trouble could dampen growing investor interest in energy and infrastructure projects in the state, although the main oil fields are far from the standoff.

FELDA SAHABAT, Malaysia, March 6 (Reuters) – Malaysian
security forces said they had killed 13 suspected Philippine
militants as they expanded their hunt for an elusive armed group
on Borneo island on Wednesday, a day after an assault with
fighter jets, mortars and hundreds of troops.

The nearly month-long confrontation in Sabah state, in
Malaysia’s part of Borneo, was sparked when the armed group of
about 200 sailed from the nearby southern Philippines to press
an ancient claim to the resource-rich region.

At least 40 people have been killed, including eight
Malaysian policemen, raising concerns of broader insecurity
ahead of elections in Malaysia.

“The total is 13. There could be more,” Malaysian Defence
Minister Zahid Hamidi told reporters at a media centre set up at
a palm oil plantation called Felda Sahabat.

Zahid, who produced what he described as pictures of some of
the dead militants, said Malaysian forces had suffered no fresh
casualties since the assault was launched on Tuesday.

Malaysian police warned residents to be on alert for members
of the group who had likely escaped into plantations that
dominate the coastal area and who could be posing as farmers.

“The mopping and searching will cover a wider area given
there are signs the intruders moved to another location,” police
inspector-general Ismail Omar told reporters.

“The security forces are tracking down their movements and
will take the appropriate action.”

FIGHTERS WILL NOT RETURN HOME: SPOKESMAN

Allies of the group in Manila said they had been in
telephone contact with Raja Muda Agbimuddin Kiram, the
militants’ leader and the brother of the self-proclaimed sultan,
who said the group had split up to avoid detection.

Abraham Idjirani, a spokesman for the group, told Reuters
that 10 of the sultan’s followers had died, with 10 captured and
four wounded.

“They will not come home and would rather die fighting if
cornered,” he said of the remaining followers in Sabah.

The family in Manila also said more followers had arrived to
reinforce the group, a journey between the Southeast Asian
neighbours that takes around an hour by speedboat.

Army trucks carrying dozens of soldiers continued to enter
the village of Kampung Tanduo where the group had originally
been holed up. A helicopter hovered overhead.

Fighter jets bombed the group’s camp in the Felda Sahabat
plantation early on Tuesday after Malaysian Prime Minister Najib
Razak said his patience had run out. Philippine officials had
urged the group to return home.

The group says it represents the now defunct sultanate of
Sulu in the southern Philippines and demands recognition and
payment from Malaysia for their claim as rightful owners of
Sabah.

The security headache could prompt Najib to delay an
election that must be held by June, adding to nervousness among
investors over what could be the country’s closest ever polls.

The insecurity has disrupted operations in Sabah’s huge palm
oil industry. Prolonged trouble could dampen growing investor
interest in energy and infrastructure projects in the state,
although the main oil fields are far from the standoff.

FELDA SAHABAT, Malaysia, March 6 (Reuters) – Malaysian
soldiers expanded their hunt for elusive Philippine militants on
Borneo island on Wednesday, a day after an all-out assault with
fighter jets, mortars and hundreds of troops failed to end the
security crisis.

The nearly month-long confrontation in Sabah state was
sparked when gunmen sailed from the nearby southern Philippines
to press an ancient claim to the resource-rich region.

Clashes killed at least 27 people including eight Malaysian
policemen in the days leading up to the assault, raising
concerns of broader insecurity ahead of elections in Malaysia.

Malaysian police said one gunman was shot on Wednesday, and
warned residents to be on alert for members of the group who had
likely escaped into palm-oil plantations that dominate the
coastal area and who could be posing as farmers. It was unclear
if the gunman had been killed.

“The mopping and searching will cover a wider area given
there are signs the intruders moved to another location,” police
inspector-general Ismail Omar told reporters.

“The security forces are tracking down their movements and
will take the appropriate action.”

On Wednesday, army trucks carrying dozens of soldiers
continued to enter the village of Kampung Tanduo where the group
had originally been holed up, while a helicopter hovered
overhead.

Fighter jets bombed the group’s camp in the Felda Sahabat
plantation early on Tuesday after Malaysian Prime Minister Najib
Razak said his patience had run out. Philippine officials had
urged the group, which numbers close to 200, to return home.

The group claims to represent the now defunct sultanate of
Sulu in the southern Philippines and is demanding recognition
and payment from Malaysia for their claim as rightful owners of
Sabah.

Allies of the sultanate in Manila said they had been in
telephone contact with Raja Muda Agbimuddin Kiram, the
militants’ leader and the brother of the self-proclaimed sultan,
who said the group had split up to avoid detection.

The family in Manila also claimed that more followers had
arrived to reinforce the group, a journey between the Southeast
Asian neighbours that takes around an hour by speedboat.

Malaysian officials said on Tuesday their forces suffered no
casualties but gave no details on the fate of the Filipinos.
Their allies in Manila had claimed many had survived and were
still resisting.

The security headache could prompt Najib to delay an
election that must be held by June, adding to nervousness among
investors over what could be the country’s closest ever polls.

The insecurity has disrupted operations in Sabah’s huge palm
oil industry. Prolonged trouble could dampen growing investor
interest in energy and infrastructure projects in the state,
although the main oil fields are far from the standoff.

Najib has been trying to regain political momentum with a
slew of government handouts after his ruling National Front
suffered an unprecedented setback in 2008 elections.

Felda Global Ventures Holdings (FGVH) is looking to raise $3
billion, when it lists on the Malaysian stock exchange next
month, in what would be the world’s second-largest initial
public offering (IPO) this year after the Facebook listing.

About a fifth of the proceeds from selling 2.19 billion
shares will be handed out to 112,635 farmers who work on land
allocated by the Federal Land Development Authority (FELDA),
Najib said.

While FELDA’s listing of its commercial arm brings financial
firepower to Malaysia’s $27 billion palm oil sector, giving some
of the proceeds to farmers – a key vote bank – is another sign
that Najib is ready to call snap polls within weeks.

The opposition has criticised the listing saying the
farmers’ cooperative will lose control over how the plantation
company is run.

“We are not trying to kill the farmers with the listing as
the opposition says,” Najib told a gathering of about 10,000
farmers at an oil palm estate in his home state of Pahang in
central Malaysia. “We are making history with this windfall.

“The listing marks a new era and is a step forward from my
father’s dream,” he said.

Najib’s father, former prime minister Abdul Razak, started
FELDA in the 1950s, handing out land to impoverished ethnic
Malays. The farms expanded to 880,000 hectares and helped
Malaysia become the second-largest palm oil producer in the
world.

The listing of FGVH clubs together refineries, plantation
management companies and logistics firms as Malaysia looks to
build an agribusiness to rival Singapore’s Wilmar International
.

COURTING FARMERS

Younger FELDA settlers had initially opposed the listing,
fearing a loss of control over an asset their rural cooperative
has invested in for decades.

A legal challenge they filed with backing from the
opposition led by former deputy prime minister Anwar Ibrahim was
dismissed and the listing was recently approved by the
cooperative. The opposition has now said they will look at other
legal avenues to stop the listing.

Both the government and the opposition have been trying to
court the farmers, who number about one million out of
Malaysia’s 28 million population when their extended families
are included.

The FELDA settlers form the bulk of the vote in 52 of
Malaysia’s 222 parliamentary seats, including Najib’s base in
Pahang, and they are ethnic Malays – a key support group for the
ruling National Front coalition.

Rural Malays threw more of their votes to the opposition in
the 2008 elections, complaining that Malaysia’s affirmative
action programme had disproportionately favoured urban and
middle-class Malays.

Government-linked newspapers have reported that in addition
to the cash windfall farmers will also hold shares in a trust
that owns 20 percent of FGVH worth 3.7 billion ringgit ($1.2
billion) and get first preference in buying more shares in the
listed firm.

Reuters reported last week that the third-largest oil palm
plantation operator by plantation area has started offering its
IPO shares to indigenous “Bumiputras” at an indicative price of
4.65 ringgit per share.

Bumiputra, meaning “sons of the soil” in the Malay language,
refers to the majority ethnic Malays and other indigenous people
in the country who benefit from a decades-old affirmative action
policy that favours them in housing, education and business.
($1 = 3.051 ringgit)

(Additional reporting and writing by Niluksi Koswanage; Editing
by Bill Tarrant and Robert Birsel)

MUAR, Malaysia (Reuters) – Malaysian police stormed a preschool on Thursday to free 30 children and four teachers held hostage by a man armed with a hammer and a machete.

Police commandos armed with assault rifles fired teargas into the school in a two-storey house in Muar, a town in southern Johor state about two hours drive from Singapore, before breaking down the doors and storming into the building to rescue the children.

“All the 30 children aged between three and give years and their four teachers are safe,” the deputy police chief of Johor state Jalaluddin Abdul Rahman told state news agency Bernama.

Jalaluddin said the suspect, believed to be mentally unstable, was shot in the head by police. The Star newspaper reported that the suspect died at 9.15 p.m. (1315 GMT).

Police forensics personnel scoured the school building which houses the school for evidence, according to a Reuters photographer at the scene.

Furniture was strewn in one of the classrooms and there were blood stains on the floor. The school’s staff cried as their statements were recorded by police, the Reuters witness said.

The man barged into the preschool on Thursday morning and locked all the doors before threatening to kill the children unless he was given a gun.

Police then sealed off the premises. A psychiatrist was sent in to talk to the man, and the children were heard singing in an attempt to calm him down, Bernama reported.

Trekking deep in Malaysia’s dense rainforest, a group of wildlife rangers went on a risky mission to locate and capture wild elephants in a bid to preserve the endangered species that are fast dwindling due to the loss of their natural habitat.

I recently joined in the mission of official “elephant hunters” — a 10-day ordeal that took us to the forested land in the southern part of Peninsular Malaysia — and ended up with a wild elephant after missing another.

Rapid clearing of forests to pave the way for oil palm estates have taken a toll on the elephant population in Malaysia’s southern state of Johor. Forest clearance ignored the need for elephant corridors to allow for transmigration and this has given rise to a considerable human-elephant conflict. Elephants have no choice but to destroy the farmers’ valuable crops.

The Elephant Management Unit, set up in 1974 by Malaysia’s Department of Wildlife and National Parks, is operating the world renowned Kuala Gandah Elephant Conservation Centre to protect the captured animals. The unit has become highly specialized in elephant translocation, moving elephants to the eastern states where there is still a large amount of forest. More than 600 elephants have been translocated in 37 years. This policy appears to have been successful in maintaining a healthy elephant population and reducing human-elephant conflict.

In this mission, I started with a team from the Wildlife Department, trekking the Lenggor Forest Reserve for six hours and 2 km (1.2 miles) deep into the jungle. We managed to locate an elephant, but failed to capture it. We continued over the next 4 days, but the luck was with another team who found an elephant about 45 minutes away from where we were.

The next day, we joined the other team in the forest near Kota Tinggi. More rangers came in, about 20 of them. The rangers brought in tame and trained elephants, “Timur” and “Cek Mek”, to assist us. We looked for more banana trees to feed the animals.

The 9th day was a big day for us. We were going to transport the captured elephant by road to Kuala Gandah, some 400 km (248 miles) away.

The process wasn’t easy. Firstly, we had to sedate the elephant before bringing in “Timur” and “Cek Mek”. The wild mammal became less aggressive when she saw her two new friends.

The trained elephants then led the wild elephant out of the forest by crossing a stream to a waiting truck.

Putting each of the 3,000 kg (3.3 ton) elephant onto a truck was an arduous task. It took nearly 2 hours to lift the bulls into the truck. We then embarked on the 400-km (248 mile) journey to Kuala Gandah, with the three elephants in tow.

We left the jungle site at 4pm. The excitement continued. Every time we stopped for a short rest, people would come out to pose with the elephants. Children rushed to feed the animals. In the process, I became their official photographer.

Following the 9-hour journey, we arrived at Kuala Gandah at about 1 am.

We waited until day break to unload the elephants.

I then bid farewell and headed home, with a feeling that I had at least helped save one endangered animal. It was an experience that I will never forget.

Bazuki poses with the team (the gun he is holding belongs to the ranger who is taking the photo, which was held for safety reasons during the picture-taking).

As I pondered whether to cover the floods that hit southern Malaysia, the first question that came to my mind was “will the floods still be there?”

Nonetheless, I decided to take the risk by driving more than 4 hours to get to the area. I was proven wrong. A villager said “You should have come yesterday.”

I grew up in the northeastern part of Malaysia where floods are a common phenomenon. When I was a young child, I enjoyed playing in the floods. Now, faced with the prospect of going home empty handed, I chose to stay put and do my best. Luck was on my side. A speeding ambulance whizzed by and I decided to chase the vehicle.

The ambulance took me to the village of Kundang Ulu. The ambulance managed to get through the floods but I was stranded on the edge of the water. But “mission accomplished”, I could see water. I started to make friends with some teenagers hoping they could bring me around to see the hardest-hit areas. They informed me that there was an area about 5 km (3 miles) away where the water was up to the roof. I asked them to bring me as close as possible with their bikes and of course they were very proud to show off their village – it was a sort of water festival in a way.

The kids dropped me off at high ground on the other side of the floodwater but the water on that side was too high to go further by motorcycle. Villagers helped me to locate Pakcik Kassim, or Uncle Kassim, who has a boat and he welcomed me to his submerged village.

Pakcik Kassim showed me his neighbor’s house where the water was almost touching the ceiling fan. Uncle Kassim also showed me his neighborhood coffee shop where only the tip of its roof could be seen. We helped a couple with their seven-year-old son evacuate their home. We came back to the ground overloaded with belongings of the family but we were glad to be able to help.

The next day was a little different. I wanted to go the village of Panchor but the road was cut off. I asked a boatman if he could bring me across but he said there was nobody on the other side who could transport me. He said I could go to the other side by road where I could reach Panchor and there were still people there. I asked him how far it was and he replied that is was 70 km away. I asked how far away we were now, “2 kms” came the reply…

I took the long drive. The village of Panchor had become like an island where all the roads were cut off. There were villagers who lived in tents to make sure their neighborhood was not looted. They asked if I had food for them. I didn’t. The water level was not incredibly high but some villagers were still evacuating.

The third day was a ‘wading’ day. The walk was 5 km (3 miles) and three quarters of it was wading through the floods. It took me three hours to reach the village of Sri Tanjong. This time I carried some food for the guarding villagers. They also cooked a simple meal for me. Surprisingly the meal was excellent, maybe due to a different ‘wet’ atmosphere, and with that meal I survived another 5 km of walking and wading to get back.

When a friend told me about the “Young Imam” reality TV show, I thought it must be just another ‘preaching and nagging’ religious program.

But when another friend of mine jokingly said “the young imams are dream son-in-laws”, I decided I should take a peek into this phenomenon. While I could understand why Mawi became a heartthrob of teenage girls after he won the Malaysian version of American Idol but, a religious TV program doesn’t usually catch on in Malaysia.

After locating “Imam Muda” (“Young Imam” in Malay) on one of the our cable TV channels, I found it to be interesting.

(Click on the image above for an audio slideshow)

It began with 10 educated and professional candidates. They came from various backgrounds – a bank officer, an entrepreneur, a farmer, a religious teacher and a graduate student, among them. The imam muda recited verses of the holy Koran, prepared the dead for burial, slaughtered animals in a halal manner, following the Muslim ritual, and counseled young Muslims.

From that moment, I started to keep up to date with who was eliminated each week.

The contest was won by Muhammad Asyraf Mohd Ridzuan, 26, who won a scholarship to the Al-Madinah University in Saudi Arabia, a job as a cleric at a mosque in Kuala Lumpur, a car, a MacBook laptop, an iPhone, an all-expenses paid pilgrimage to Mecca, and a cash prize of 20,000 ringgit ($6,300).

The experience opened my eyes to the fact that religious programs could produce local celebrities, or in the words of my friends “dream son-in-laws”.